#2: A Truly Extraordinary Octopus

Who could forget the second most popular blog post so far this year. Seeing an octopus walk never gets old!
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I came across this amazing video on YouTube showing a species of octopus found in Northern Australia that is adapted to walk on land:

It seems that octopuses are even smarter, and more fearless, than previously thought. It has been known for some time that they can be trained to open jars to obtain treats as shown in the promotional video for "Aliens of the Deep Sea" shown below:
There are even stories of them purposefully…

I watched an amazing Nova special on cuttlefish, a relative of octopus. These animals really are the "Kings of Camouflage!" I have seen animals that can change colors to match their environments, but I have never seen one able to produce moving colors or to contort their bodies to mimic objects in…

Speaking of octopuses, the ability for the animals to squeeze through narrow openings has inspired the creation of a new surgical robotic device that can squeeze into a patient's body.
An EU team created STIFFness controllable Flexible and Learnable manipulator for surgical OPerations, dubbed "…

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You may be wondering why I have been so sentimental even though the year is not over yet. I am happy to inform you that it is not because I am retiring. On the contrary, I am packing up my virtual bags and moving this blog to a new site! Pardon the dust while we get settled into our new digs.

And the #1 blog entry published thus far in 2017 discussed whether there was an evolutionary advantage to being stupid:
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As I was looking through the scientific literature the other day, I came across an article published in 1973, "The Evolutionary Advantages of Being Stupid." With a title like…

Who could forget the second most popular blog post so far this year. Seeing an octopus walk never gets old!
-------
I came across this amazing video on YouTube showing a species of octopus found in Northern Australia that is adapted to walk on land:

The #3 post so far this year explored how zebra finches reward themselves for singing well:
Dopamine is an important hormone released from neurons involved in reward pathways. Researchers at Cornell University wanted to know if dopamine signaling was involved in how birds learn songs. Their…

Here is the 4th most popular post so far this year:
Picture of a komodo dragon by CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Researchers studying komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) at George Mason University discovered 48 previously unknown peptides in their blood that might have antimicrobial…

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"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little." -George Carlin
Whatever you may think of the chances are for intelligent life in our galaxy are today, I can guarantee you they're going to go up dramatically in a few billion years. Sure, by that time the Earth may be a little too hot for comfort, and in that…

"The evidence at present available points strongly to the conclusion that the spirals are individual galaxies, or island universes, comparable with our own galaxy in dimension and in number of component units." -Heber Curtis, 1920
In many different areas of life, we settle disagreements by popular vote. But in science, we know better; regardless of whether people accept the conclusions or not,…

In which I interview Geoffrey Rojas, an organizer for Minnesota March for Science:
Books mentioned in the interview:
The War on Science: Who's Waging It, Why It Matters, What We Can Do About It by Shawn Otto.
The Meetup Information for the Atheists Bus is here. The bus is currently full!
The Minnesota March for Science facebook page is here.
I think the wether is going to be perfect marching…